


Night terrors

by LazyAdmiral



Series: Disaster Mage Trio one-shots [4]
Category: Dragon Age (Video Games), Dragon Age - All Media Types, Dragon Age: Inquisition
Genre: Circle PTSD, Multi, Nightmares
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-14
Updated: 2021-03-14
Packaged: 2021-03-23 00:35:46
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,078
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/30047229
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LazyAdmiral/pseuds/LazyAdmiral
Summary: He woke, heart hammering and still feeling the ghost of Meredith’s gauntlet closing around his throat.-Prompt fill for Tumblr. Orsino wakes after a familiar nightmare; Alexius and Ana do their best to help with the aftermath.
Relationships: Gereon Alexius/Original Character(s), Gereon Alexius/Orsino, Gereon Alexius/Orsino/Original Character(s), Orsino (Dragon Age)/Original Character(s)
Series: Disaster Mage Trio one-shots [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2208723
Kudos: 1





	Night terrors

**Author's Note:**

> Prompt: Kissing tears from the other’s face

He woke, heart hammering and still feeling the ghost of Meredith’s gauntlet closing around his throat.

In a moment, Orsino was up and out of bed, striding over to the window at the end of the room and throwing it wide, unheeding of the sudden blast of cold the swept into the room. He stood leaning out into the night, silent except for the great gulps of cool air he tried to force into his over-tight lungs. Every bone in his body seemed to shake with his racing heartbeat and when he closed his eyes, he could feel tears spilling onto his cheeks, rapidly cooling in the winter air.

Dimly, he was aware there was movement behind him, nightclothes rustling as bedcovers were thrown off and the lamp lit. Beneath the panic, a wisp of guilt began to bloom.

He should have expected it eventually, he supposed. He hadn’t had a nightmare about the Gallows since he’d left Redcliffe with the rest of the rebel mages marching towards Haven, but he knew better than to think they had left him completely.

Orsino almost laughed to himself, a choking, humourless sound in the back of his throat. As if he would be so lucky.

In his desperate need for air, he hadn’t even drawn back the curtains, simply pushing past them in his haste. They were pulled back now, metal sliders shockingly loud in the quiet.

“Amatus?”

Alexius stopped at his side, just out of the corner of his eye and close enough that Orsino could feel the warmth of sleep still radiating off of him but not touching him yet. He wasn’t entirely sure if he was grateful for Alexius keeping his distance or if the obvious concern grated against his raw nerves. Knowing his fickle pride, the truth lay somewhere between the two.

Eyes still closed, Orsino tightened his grip on the window ledge, fingertips pressing bloodlessly against the rough grain.

“It’s fine,” he rasped, his throat feeling painfully dry and tight.

The noise Alexius made was fond but sceptical, which Orsino supposed he deserved.

“Here,” Ana’s voice came softly from behind him, and he managed to pry his eyelids open enough to look back, seeing Alexius take the water glass from her. Releasing his grip on the window ledge proved a little harder, and his hand shook slightly as he took the glass when Alexius held it out.

Still, the water helped. It was cold and soothing against his throat and as he turned his back to the night sky to lean against the sill, his breathing was starting to come a little easier. He wasn’t going to sleep again any time soon, but given that Ana had gone back to relighting the wood-burner, he suspected he wasn’t going to be alone in that.

Chagrin settled in, and he watched silently for a moment as Ana moved around the room, still sluggish with sleep and unheeding that most of her hair had tried to escape her braid in the night. By his side, Alexius rubbed his eyes and Orsino barely held back a grimace.

“Apologies – I didn’t mean to wake you both,” he murmured, staring into the nearly empty glass.

Alexius gave a quiet huff, and when he moved in closer, Orsino found himself leaning in, craving the warmth and the steady, grounding weight of the other man’s hand at his back.

“You’re not exactly the only one here with personal demons, amatus,” Alexius remarked wryly. After a moment’s pause, he then asked, “Would it help to discuss it?”

Orsino bit his tongue against the instinctive decline, forcing himself to consider it. The nightmares were old fears, old regrets, old guilts – he’d carried them long enough they felt like a part of him now, a part that was deeply personal and private. Which, in a way, was why he’d never asked Ana for her assistance with them, and why he suspected she’d never tried to force the issue, as a matter of respect. Still, he’d never really tried talking about the dreams before – and if he felt he could trust that vulnerability to anyone, surely it would be the two who now shared so much else of his life?

He let out a sigh, barely more than a breath as he gave a tiny nod.

“Perhaps. But not tonight.”

Alexius responded by pulling him closer still and turning his head to press his lips against the dip of his temple and then again, lower, at his cheek where his tears had already begun to dry.

“Whatever you ask.”

Orsino felt rooted to the spot. After the nightmare leaving him feeling flayed open and raw, the tender attention had him melting, simultaneously too much and not enough to contain the aching sweetness in his chest. He let his eyes fall shut again, turning to bury his head against the soft warmth of Alexius’ shoulder. The other man had managed to pull on his dressing gown before joining him at the window, and Orsino was suddenly quite aware he was standing in nothing more than his nightshirt. He shivered, now conscious of the cold and Alexius’ arm around him grew tighter.

A moment later, another warmth appeared at his side, and he opened his eyes to find Ana had joined them, the fire now crackling away. She took a moment to take the now empty glass from his hand and set it aside before she returned, her hand slipping into his as she leaned up on her toes, pressing a gentle kiss of her own to his other cheek.

“Better?” she asked, and he nodded, surprised that he actually meant it.

When the draught finally became too much for even Ana to tolerate, Orsino finally let them draw him back to bed, curling either side of him under the covers. He wasn’t sure how long they laid there, talking in hushed murmurs about a dozen different things, from research to gossip to increasingly ridiculous hypothetical questions that had him snorting quietly into the pillows. Everything seemed to meld into warmth and hands and feet entwined under covers and quiet laughter and the last lingering tension seeping out of his bones…

Sleep snuck up on him, and he missed the soft looks his lovers exchanged or the quiet endearments as they doused the lights and settled down to rest. But perhaps he’d felt them near in the Fade because no nightmares plagued him for the rest of the evening.


End file.
